Movies based on simple ideas sometimes offer simple explanations of
their failures. THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS & DOGS, 1996 romantic
comedy directed by Michael Lehmann, is one such film.

The protagonist of this film is dr. Aby Barnes (played by Janeane
Garofalo), expert veterinarian from Los Angeles. She is intelligent,
well-read, witty and charming and that is the reason why her talk
show, in which she gives advice to pet owners, happens to be among
the more popular in Los Angeles area. One of pet owners interested
in advice is British photographer Brian (played by Ben Chaplin).
During the conversation he gets so intrigued by Aby that he decides
to ask her for a date. However, circumstances conspire for Brian to
mistake Noelle (played by Uma Thurman), Aby's neighbour and
glamorous actress/modelfor Aby. Aby, who happens to think of
herself as plain-looking and unattractive, decides to spare Brian from
ugly truth and maintains relationship over the phone while Noelle
agrees to double for her in real life.

Audrey Wells' script uses old plot of Rostand's CYRANO, switches
the genders and puts the plot in modern-day Los Angeles thus giving
it extra dimension in a world where image and physical beauty play
much more important role than other human qualities. Michael
Lehmann directs the movie very well, humour is good and the acting
is solid. This film was supposed to be more than decent romantic
comedy, but it didn't happen. Reason is very simple - casting. The
entire film is based on the idea of Dr. Aby Barnes being ugly
duckling, while Noelle is supposed to be a swan. The author of this
review could very easily be burdened by unorthodox aesthetic
criteria, but for him Janeane Garofalo is definitely not a ugly duckling
and Uma Thurman is far from being ultimate embodiment of female
beauty (Bridget Kelly's poor choice of costumes doesn't much help in
the case of the latter). Suspension of disbelief, necessary for this kind
of movies to work, is hard to maintain. It gets even harder to suspend
disbelief when we see Ben Chaplin's character being so stupid and
not seeing through charade as simple as Aby's. Because of that, THE
TRUTH ABOUT CATS & DOGS, a movie that was supposed to be
one of Hollywood's better romantic comedies, reveals sad truth of
Hollywood filmmakers being unable to overcome its weaknesses
even when they are quite aware of them.